peer pressure
Dearest Yuletide Santa,
Firstly I am so sorry that you received an assignment with literally nothing to go on! Sorry I am such a twerp. I was not especially planning on doing yuletide this year (it has been several years since I have participated, I am, as you can perhaps tell, something of an internet ghost these days), but on the very last night of sign ups some friends of mine were talking about their sign ups, and I felt very left out. Of course I would decide to throw together a sign up all "I'LL WRITE PROMPTS LATER!!!" in a week where I had to buy a car (terrible) and also go out of town (not terrible but time-consuming). Also I did not realize assignments would go out so soon. But I suppose I would have been v. late by now even if they had not happened so quickly.
Anyway! Do you even want this? Have you already got plot ideas in your head? Have you already gone into "WELL, FUCK IT, I'M WRITING WHAT I WANT" mode because you basically received a blank recipient? If so you should feel free to stop reading because I was pretty specific in my character selections and it would be VERY DIFFICULT for you to write something with any of these ships that I love that I will not love. (Also I am a big lover of gen, so if you’re NOT into any of these people romantically, I will still be delighted, pinkie swear.) But I know that I, personally, find prompts helpful, so. Here are some of those.
Decathlon & Heptathlon RPF - Ashton/Brianne
The highlight of my Olympics was this stupid commercial and their stupid faces. I am a sucker for the silly competitive romcom dynamic as presented here (esp as combined with their support of each other relationship), so - I don’t know? More of that? All the stories about the beginnings of their relationship in college as related to various media outlets are darling, and I would love something set then. And I honestly am not normally into AUs, but RPF is an exception here, so if you wanted to veer out into a competitive video gaming AU or space cowboy AU or a spy marriage of convenience AU if that sounds more fun to you.
Being Erica - Erica/Kai
I was really disappointed in Kai’s return in season 4 - I actually stopped watching the show in season 3 because I couldn’t take the emotional stress of Erica losing her business on top of the emotional stress of ADAM & HIS MANPAIN EXISTING AS A ROMANTIC INTEREST (these scars run deep). I thought it was sort of dull to end an interesting, complicated romantic “problem” with “oh but he’s impractical, he goes for the immediate proposal”, so it can end neatly with the "he's the wrong choice, he doesn't really know her".
Do I want the season 4 return rewritten? Do I want them to figure out how to avert her death and be sad old people together in 2019? Do I want them to NOT avert her death and be sad about that? Do I just want a few more snippets of him visiting her whilst back on a regret? Do I want him letting her go? DO I WANT RESOLUTION? Or is it better without it because the romance is in the fact that there really isn't a way for it to ever happen? I don't know. I just want more of them.
Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery - Anne/Gilbert
I’ve sort of been thinking as I’ve reread these this year (for the first time since 2007!), that I wouldn’t mind a different ending for Anne and Gil than either the books or the movies (miniserieses? I’m going to keep calling them movies) gave us. The book series goes very Victorian after the marriage, and I’m a little bit sad that weird, dreamy Anne Shirley, gives way to Mrs. Dr. Dear, who spends more time keeping house than writing.
Obviously the third movie is garbage/the onscreen version of that not-even-good-enough-to-be-technically-mediocre fanfiction epic you start reading when you’ve exhausted all the good fic in your fandom du jour, but there were little pieces of it I liked (I guess Gilbert’s New York storyline? the fact that Anne was writing? the reunion scene? possibly just their faces, honestly). What I do sort of like is the ending of the second movie - the emphasis on home, her relationship with Marilla. But honestly I think I just want to read a different interpretation of where they end up - it doesn’t really matter what direction you take it.
Does that sound weird or hard? Do you hate it? If yes please just write me Anne of the Island fic, because I wish that book were 1000 pages and any little way you could expand it would delight me: more Phil! more Patty’s Place! the shift after “A Book of Revelations” that gives Gil the courage to try again (I would honest-to-god probably love a fic that was just Phil’s letter)! or like. Everyone’s reactions to the engagement, even, I was always a bit sad to have missed that.
Dream High - Jinguk/Hyemi
I was always kind of disappointed that Hyemi ended up debuting instead of going to Julliard - dreams change, I know, but she was so sure. Debuting seemed like a better future for her than everyone else. So I guess what I’d like is alt-poor Brooklyn hipster art student Hyemi. I personally liked her with Jinguk (I’m tragically doomed to always like the wrong kdrama couple, also tragically into people with ~history~), and wouldn’t be ADVERSE to him not shedding his scandal and having to study abroad like his dad wanted him to and pop up, but just Hyemi is good too.
So many words and these are still the vaguest prompts, aren't they? I'm sorry I'm the worst recipient in the history of recipients. I GUESS I'LL JUST THROW THE REST OF THIS AT YOU IN CASE IT HELPS:
Generally, I like humor & warmth, people being stupid about their feelings for each other, banter, female-driven stories, found family.
Generally, I don’t like: AUs, weirdly enough - I tend to usually like my favorites best in the fictional universe I found them in (although I love canon deviations and what-if stories!). The huge exception to this is RPF, and if that is what we matched on then please, AU away. I also don’t manpain, dubcon/noncon, or PWPs. Those are really the big ones.
If you are the sort of person who requires LOTS OF INFORMATION, or enjoys procrastinating on the actual writing part, I sympathize and offer up past yuletide letters, my pinboard with lots of fic I have liked in the past, and a tumblr that I am notorious for barely using. This livejournal is old and I sound dumb in so many of its posts, but I guess you can look through it, too.
You are the best. I appreciate this so much and look forward to whatever you produce.
xoxo
Firstly I am so sorry that you received an assignment with literally nothing to go on! Sorry I am such a twerp. I was not especially planning on doing yuletide this year (it has been several years since I have participated, I am, as you can perhaps tell, something of an internet ghost these days), but on the very last night of sign ups some friends of mine were talking about their sign ups, and I felt very left out. Of course I would decide to throw together a sign up all "I'LL WRITE PROMPTS LATER!!!" in a week where I had to buy a car (terrible) and also go out of town (not terrible but time-consuming). Also I did not realize assignments would go out so soon. But I suppose I would have been v. late by now even if they had not happened so quickly.
Anyway! Do you even want this? Have you already got plot ideas in your head? Have you already gone into "WELL, FUCK IT, I'M WRITING WHAT I WANT" mode because you basically received a blank recipient? If so you should feel free to stop reading because I was pretty specific in my character selections and it would be VERY DIFFICULT for you to write something with any of these ships that I love that I will not love. (Also I am a big lover of gen, so if you’re NOT into any of these people romantically, I will still be delighted, pinkie swear.) But I know that I, personally, find prompts helpful, so. Here are some of those.
Decathlon & Heptathlon RPF - Ashton/Brianne
The highlight of my Olympics was this stupid commercial and their stupid faces. I am a sucker for the silly competitive romcom dynamic as presented here (esp as combined with their support of each other relationship), so - I don’t know? More of that? All the stories about the beginnings of their relationship in college as related to various media outlets are darling, and I would love something set then. And I honestly am not normally into AUs, but RPF is an exception here, so if you wanted to veer out into a competitive video gaming AU or space cowboy AU or a spy marriage of convenience AU if that sounds more fun to you.
Being Erica - Erica/Kai
I was really disappointed in Kai’s return in season 4 - I actually stopped watching the show in season 3 because I couldn’t take the emotional stress of Erica losing her business on top of the emotional stress of ADAM & HIS MANPAIN EXISTING AS A ROMANTIC INTEREST (these scars run deep). I thought it was sort of dull to end an interesting, complicated romantic “problem” with “oh but he’s impractical, he goes for the immediate proposal”, so it can end neatly with the "he's the wrong choice, he doesn't really know her".
Do I want the season 4 return rewritten? Do I want them to figure out how to avert her death and be sad old people together in 2019? Do I want them to NOT avert her death and be sad about that? Do I just want a few more snippets of him visiting her whilst back on a regret? Do I want him letting her go? DO I WANT RESOLUTION? Or is it better without it because the romance is in the fact that there really isn't a way for it to ever happen? I don't know. I just want more of them.
Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery - Anne/Gilbert
I’ve sort of been thinking as I’ve reread these this year (for the first time since 2007!), that I wouldn’t mind a different ending for Anne and Gil than either the books or the movies (miniserieses? I’m going to keep calling them movies) gave us. The book series goes very Victorian after the marriage, and I’m a little bit sad that weird, dreamy Anne Shirley, gives way to Mrs. Dr. Dear, who spends more time keeping house than writing.
Obviously the third movie is garbage/the onscreen version of that not-even-good-enough-to-be-technically-mediocre fanfiction epic you start reading when you’ve exhausted all the good fic in your fandom du jour, but there were little pieces of it I liked (I guess Gilbert’s New York storyline? the fact that Anne was writing? the reunion scene? possibly just their faces, honestly). What I do sort of like is the ending of the second movie - the emphasis on home, her relationship with Marilla. But honestly I think I just want to read a different interpretation of where they end up - it doesn’t really matter what direction you take it.
Does that sound weird or hard? Do you hate it? If yes please just write me Anne of the Island fic, because I wish that book were 1000 pages and any little way you could expand it would delight me: more Phil! more Patty’s Place! the shift after “A Book of Revelations” that gives Gil the courage to try again (I would honest-to-god probably love a fic that was just Phil’s letter)! or like. Everyone’s reactions to the engagement, even, I was always a bit sad to have missed that.
Dream High - Jinguk/Hyemi
I was always kind of disappointed that Hyemi ended up debuting instead of going to Julliard - dreams change, I know, but she was so sure. Debuting seemed like a better future for her than everyone else. So I guess what I’d like is alt-poor Brooklyn hipster art student Hyemi. I personally liked her with Jinguk (I’m tragically doomed to always like the wrong kdrama couple, also tragically into people with ~history~), and wouldn’t be ADVERSE to him not shedding his scandal and having to study abroad like his dad wanted him to and pop up, but just Hyemi is good too.
So many words and these are still the vaguest prompts, aren't they? I'm sorry I'm the worst recipient in the history of recipients. I GUESS I'LL JUST THROW THE REST OF THIS AT YOU IN CASE IT HELPS:
Generally, I like humor & warmth, people being stupid about their feelings for each other, banter, female-driven stories, found family.
Generally, I don’t like: AUs, weirdly enough - I tend to usually like my favorites best in the fictional universe I found them in (although I love canon deviations and what-if stories!). The huge exception to this is RPF, and if that is what we matched on then please, AU away. I also don’t manpain, dubcon/noncon, or PWPs. Those are really the big ones.
If you are the sort of person who requires LOTS OF INFORMATION, or enjoys procrastinating on the actual writing part, I sympathize and offer up past yuletide letters, my pinboard with lots of fic I have liked in the past, and a tumblr that I am notorious for barely using. This livejournal is old and I sound dumb in so many of its posts, but I guess you can look through it, too.
You are the best. I appreciate this so much and look forward to whatever you produce.
xoxo